Miami-Dade commissioner: Time to expand the Urban Development Boundary near air base

New legislation by a county commissioner in South Miami-Dade seeks to expand industrial projects into farmland around the Homestead Air Reserve base, acreage that’s currently reserved for agriculture and houses built on large lots.

Five months into office, Commissioner Kionne McGhee has proposed a landmark loosening of building restrictions in his district by expanding the Urban Development Boundary — best known as the UDB — into what he said would be about 700 acres of farmland south of the Florida Turnpike.

“We can have an industrial revolution in South Miami-Dade County,” he said Friday. “The whole premise is have no more housing in that area. Make it purely industrial.”

McGhee’s legislation is set for a public hearing at noon on Thursday, April 15, at the commission’s Infrastructure and Operations committee.

It’s a move sure to set up the first big clash between environmental groups and builders in the administration of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who courted slow-growth advocates in her campaign and said bolstering Miami-Dade’s farmland would be a priority. She and McGhee, fellow Democrats in non-partisan posts, took office in November.

Eve Samples, director of the Friends of the Everglades advocacy group, said the McGhee proposal was troubling.

“I’m concerned about it. It’s alarming,” she said. “What I think is happening here is there is a scramble underway to develop around the Homestead Air Base. It looks like a full scale assault on land-use planning.”

Environmental groups are already fighting a county plan to add a private airfield to the Homestead facility. Developed under the previous administration, when Carlos Gimenez was mayor, the plan states it only would allow private planes to get fuel in the Homestead area and wouldn’t open up the base to cargo aircraft.

But environmental groups warn noise from excessive take-offs and landings from the new facility could ruin Everglades and Biscayne national parks below if allowed to expand to serve shipping companies with operations around the base, including Amazon.

The area targeted for UDB expansion by McGhee sits within 3,000 acres designated by county planners as one of the places in Miami-Dade that should be part of the urban-development area once housing or industrial growth exceeds current targets.

Known as “Urban Expansion Area No. 3,” the entire footprint runs south from Southwest 232nd Street, east of the Florida Turnpike and down to where the air base begins, below Southwest 280th Street.

The McGhee proposal only asks for an application to expand the land within District 9, which he represents. He said that area represents about 700 acres between the base and the Turnpike, running along Southwest 112th Avenue. Under the McGhee legislation, the expansion area would be called the South Dade Industrial and Employment Zone.

McGhee’s resolution calls for Miami-Dade to begin the approval process of expanding the UDB to include District 9’s share of Area No. 3, so passage of his resolution would require another commission vote in the future to actually make the change. He said the area shouldn’t be used for housing but targeted for commercial projects to boost employment in his district.

A March draft report by the county’s planning staff, which reports to Levine Cava, concluded the county had enough land for commercial uses to last past 2040 without expanding the UDB.

The study found enough land to meet residential demand through 2040 as well, but only through the construction of apartment buildings and townhouses. The report concluded land suitable for building new single-family homes is almost gone, and will be exhausted by 2024.

The report notes some of the areas in the southern expansion region could be strong candidates for residential or commercial construction in later years, particularly areas near the county’s busway off US-1.

The McGhee proposal mentions the UDB expansion sought this year by a commercial project near the Homestead base. Called the South Dade Logistics and Technology District, it’s a proposed 800-acre commercial complex off the Turnpike and north of the air base. The project sits just north of McGhee’s district, in an area represented by District 8 Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins. Her office released a statement Friday saying the commissioner hasn’t taken a position on whether to extend the UDB into the expansion area.

“The Commissioner has been meeting with key members of the community and organizations that range from environmental, business and agriculture on this matter,” the statement said.

McGhee said his legislation was designed for District 9 to get the same UDB expansion as the one the South Dade Logistics project is seeking in District 8. He said the proposal reflects the wishes of struggling South Miami-Dade farmers ready to sell their land to developers.

“The farmers told me they want it. They don’t want to farm this land anymore.,” McGhee said of UDB expansion. “I know it’s not a popular thing to do. The reality of it is, it’s the right thing to do.”

This story was originally published April 9, 2021 at 7:29 PM.